Technology Blog

April 30, 2018

Achieving AI for Everyone Through Industry Collaboration

By Susan A. Johnson

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There’s no question the artificial intelligence (AI) transformation is here. And it’s touching businesses of all sizes and industries of all types. Companies not actively exploring AI in their roadmap plans face being left behind. We are upon the new industrial revolution and we believe AI is a force for good with the potential to benefit everyone.

By simplifying development and promoting collaboration, transparency, knowledge sharing and continued investment, that potential can be realized – which is a key driver on why we hosted the industry’s first AI supplier conference. On April 23-24, more than 100 AI experts representing over 35 global companies gathered in Dallas to explore initiatives, discuss plans and strategies, and learn about new technologies from industry leaders in the AI space.

Topics ranged from cybersecurity and customer care to 5G and data for AI. Conversations exemplified how AI is quickly becoming vital to businesses around the world and across industries to compete, to scale and to engage and win the customers of tomorrow.

From utilizing AI for technician dispatching to empowering employees to build their own automation tools, we shared key ways we’re implementing AI. The conference also served as a great opportunity to familiarize suppliers with our recently-launched open source AI platform, the Acumos AI Project. Together with Tech Mahindra, we developed the project to help make AI accessible to everyone.

The Acumos platform, hosted by The Linux Foundation, simplifies the development of AI applications and provides a marketplace for accessing, using and enhancing those applications. Open source projects play a key role in speeding innovation in the space, and we were excited to share that message with our collaborators.

“The goal of this first-ever event was to open up communication and collaboration between AT&T and our key AI suppliers,” said Chris Rice, SVP of Domain 2.0 Architecture and Design at AT&T. “To maximize the potential of AI, we need to build mutually beneficial relationships throughout the supplier ecosystem, and the AI Supplier Conference offered a chance to do just that. We’re excited to set the tone for an innovative year ahead.”

By bringing together machine learning/AI and human expertise and applying them to find solutions to real problems, AI truly can deliver as a force for good benefiting everyone. See our conference video for more voices from this collaborative gathering.